| |
Ok, is it just me, or does the e-bay style of auction actually encourage
"unfair"(1) bidding practises?
On about 2/3 of the auctions I've participated in, or followed, there has been
a similar flow to the bids. Several people bid on it in the first day or so
(sometimes more, sometimes less, depending on how popular it is), it reaches a
fairly reasonable price, and sits there, uncontested, until 4-6 hours before
the auction ends. Several people bid on it in the last few hours, and in some
cases, the last few minutes. This sometimes pushes the price beyond
reasonable(2), but more often, the 'high bidder' is over-turned on his high bid
by the absolute minimum necessary, before they have a chance to react. One
(probably extreme) case saw an item jump from 4 bids to 11 bids in the last
hour, all from only 1 bidder.
I can understand, from e-bay's point of view, why they run it like this, but
(to be blunt) why would anyone use it? As far as I can tell, the only
advantage to using e-bay, either as a buyer, or a seller, is the exposure. (for
sellers, a greater market, for buyers, greater diversity)
As a buyer, I have been frustrated on more than one occaision, by the bidding
practises described above, while refusing to sink to the same level (3), and I
just can't see the point as a seller. If you're not in it for the best profit,
odds are you aren't trying to sell it over the internet(4), and e-bay doesn't
give you the best chance for profit - a once, twice, sold format does that.
As to the exposure, you're not going to catch very many AFOL's that aren't
aware of RTL & Lugnet - if you're net-aware and an AFOL, they're both pretty
hard to not notice - so why not just advertise there?
All-in-all, e-bay (to me, at least) seems aimed solidly at the marks. "Hey, I
know, why don't we set up a service on the internet to do something people are
fully capable of doing themselves, if they bother to work a little? We can
charge people a fee of some kind to use our service, we'll design it in such a
way that it always seems like a bargain, but it will really just add an
unnecessary layer into transactions where we can skim a small amount, and make
a huge profit! Even better, we'll aim it at the american public, because
they're the market with the largest percentage of non-professionals on the
'net, and thats the kind of people who will fall for this stuff!"
Ok, I got a little sarcastic towards the end there, but my point still stands.
All e-bay does (especially in the Lego community) is add an extra layer where
an outsider pulls money out, and provide an interface for speculators to get at
us.
My call - boycott e-bay! (unless, of course, you see that really good
deal...)(5)
1: Mu opinion, of course, but one I suspect many here share.
2: reasonable being entirely subjective, of course, but I'm basing my idea of
reasonable on RTL and Lugnet auctions whenever possible
3: maybe that's my problem: too @#$@# moral for my own good. :)
4: feel free to flame - it'll give me an excuse to justify my off-hand comment
5: sarcasm or hypocrisy - you decide ;)
James
http://www.shades-of-night.com/lego/
|
|
Message has 7 Replies:
 | | Re: CFD: e-bay (aka ranting and raving)
|
| James Brown ranted (or is it raved?): (...) Yes. (...) Not only that, but they all seem to end past midnight my time which means that people who work probably won't be up to compete in the sniping. (...) I like it when they answer their own (...) (26 years ago, 9-Feb-99, to lugnet.off-topic.debate)
| | | Re: CFD: e-bay (aka ranting and raving)
|
| Yes, eBay's style of auctioning is perceived as unfair by many people (including me). Many other people don't see it as unfair. The bottom line seems to be that you can either play by eBay's rules, possibly hoping for something better; or you can (...) (26 years ago, 9-Feb-99, to lugnet.off-topic.debate)
| | | Re: e-bay (aka ranting and raving)
|
| James Brown wrote in message ... (...) Sorry for clipping all that, but they are fairly common problems with eBay. We've basically exhausted this topic on RTL, although you do have very valid points. The late bidding thing gets into a lot of human (...) (26 years ago, 9-Feb-99, to lugnet.off-topic.debate)
| | | Re: CFD: e-bay (aka ranting and raving)
|
| (...) Well...to be fair, eBay /does/ have that 'bidding gnome' thing. The idea is that you tell it the maximum you want to pay for the set, and it does the bidding for you so you don't have to watch it. This is why the final bid is usually only the (...) (26 years ago, 10-Feb-99, to lugnet.off-topic.debate)
| | | Re: CFD: e-bay (aka ranting and raving)
|
| <snip> (...) I'd say more than 2/3. Almost all of the auctions I've been in as a buyer and a seller follow this pattern. (...) Remember that in a proxy bidding system such as eBay, the highest bid is defined as "just a little more" than the second (...) (26 years ago, 10-Feb-99, to lugnet.off-topic.debate)
| | | Re: CFD: e-bay (aka ranting and raving)
|
| (...) (for (...) Well perhaps it's just me being suspicious because I'm new to all this and not really used to internet auctions yet, but one thing that does worry me about lugnet auctions, where everything is controlled totally be the seller is - (...) (26 years ago, 10-Feb-99, to lugnet.off-topic.debate)
| | | Re: CFD: e-bay (aka ranting and raving)
|
| Yes James, You are a hypocrit (not a word I normally need to spell). I here nothing good about ebay and have never looked at the site and your comment (5) doesn't help to get rid of ebay. The best thing we can all do is: when people post a message (...) (26 years ago, 10-Feb-99, to lugnet.off-topic.debate)
|
89 Messages in This Thread:
  
 
- Entire Thread on One Page:
- Nested:
All | Brief | Compact | Dots
Linear:
All | Brief | Compact
|
|
|
|
